Keantish Weald garden designed by Tom Stuart-Smith

From time to time, a landscaping project comes along that requires particularly delicate handling. This Tudor yeoman farmer’s house, built in 1485, with later additions, is just such a place. Hidden away down a long private driveway in a fold in the Kentish Weald, it is a place of exceptional charm, hugged by ancient oaks, with unspoilt views in every direction.

House and garden — Straight paths of weathered York stone run past deep flower borders, which feature pink heads of Echinacea pallida, nodding white bells of Galtonia candicans and pale-pink blooms of Phlox x arendsii ‘Utopia’. Image © Bennet Smith/Marianne Majerus Pictures

The previous owner, whose father bought the estate in the 1930s, enjoyed living here from age nine until her nineties, and the new owners have continued to cherish its peaceful natural beauty.

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topiary yews in garden — In front of the house, the view to open fields is now unmarred by the sight of parked cars. This area has been laid to lawn, with the main entrance now perfectly framed by two lines of mature topiary yews. © Bennet Smith/Marianne Majerus Pictures

In brief: a rural garden in Kent

What Informally planted flower gardens with topiary lawn, cutting garden, pool area, woodland dell and grazed wildflower meadow.
Where Kent.
Size Three and a half acres.
Soil Wealden clay with some greensand areas.
Climate Temperate.
Hardiness zone USDA 9a

While architect Ptolemy Dean, who specialises in historic preservation, tackled the Grade II*- listed house and outbuildings, landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith was brought in to remodel the garden. These two fertile minds have worked together and exchanged ideas on various projects over more than three decades, so the combination has proved very fruitful.

Nothing connects you to your garden more than seeing the planting directly outside the window

What was needed, says Tom, was “careful and respectful restoration of a landscape and buildings that would make it work for the new owners, while ensuring that it would not feel as though it had had a total makeover”.

Existing features included fine old trees, carpets of scillas and a woodland dell filled with camellias and flowering cherries. Tom’s brief was to design a beautiful garden in the areas around the house, creating something of the feel of Great Dixter, with its topiary, yew hedges and frothy, naturalised planting, but “a bit more outward looking”.

Garden and outdoor pool — In the pool garden, which lies further away from the house, the planting style is much looser and grows to two metres high in summer. It is based upon Tom’s trademark prairie perennials including red Bistorta amplexicaulis and mauve Verbena hastata f. rosea. The new pavilion was designed by Ptolemy Dean to house the services. © Bennet Smith/Marianne Majerus Pictures

Off to one side of the manor house is a medieval barn, but the two buildings felt disparate and there was an incongruous car park between them. The owners were keen to preserve the rural aspect of the estate and to open up the countryside views from the house, so car parking has now been tucked away out of sight, further up the drive.

It feels timeless here so we have echoed that with beautiful old York stone paving and brick

To create a strong spatial link between the two buildings, Tom has announced the primacy of the house by putting a lawn in front of it, flanked by two lines of mature topiary yews. Outside the barn is a simple arrangement of low box topiary. Two new trees – a walnut and an oak – also help to visually unite them. “The connection between the two buildings is intended to still be a fraction tenuous. Department stores used to have a section called Related Separates,” says Tom. “That’s rather what we have here now.”

All around the walls of the house, Tom has created deep mixed borders, featuring irises, salvias and verbascums that help to ground the house in its setting. “Nothing connects you more to your garden than having that sense of immediacy, seeing the planting directly outside the window,” says Tom. Beside these, new paths now surround the house, following strong geometric lines, although this geometry isn’t perceivable on site as it is disguised by the exuberantly frothy planting.

“The landscape detailing is Arts and Crafts in character to tie in with Ptolemy’s approach to the house,” explains Tom. “It feels timeless here, so we have echoed that with beautiful old York stone paving for the main paths and brick for secondary paths. Local ragstone features too, for new walls, along with tile creasing for the step risers.”

Terraces on every side, enveloped by tall planting, offer the family various places to sit, following the sun. On the west side, down a gentle slope, is the main flower garden, divided into four large beds, giving wonderful views out over meadowesque planting to the fields and newly excavated lake beyond.

A profusion of grasses is punctuated with kaleidoscopic flowering plants, including Verbena bonariensis, Sanguisorba ‘Cangshan Cranberry’, Galtonia candicans, Lysimachia ephemerum, Ammi majus and Catananche caerulea. The effect is exceptionally soft and pretty with plenty of plant interest to satisfy the owner’s discerning tastes.

Biodiversity is very important to the owners and they feel fortunate to have Graham Hodgson, who worked at Great Dixter for 15 years, as their head gardener. Graham started here three and a half years ago, in time to work alongside Tom’s team at the planting stage, and his long-honed experience has ensured that Tom’s borders are in good hands. They also have a WRAGS student who helps out for two days a week.

Two important features on Tom’s brief were to provide the owner, a keen flower arranger, with a glasshouse and cutting garden. Although she can’t be out here all the time herself, the garden is very important to her. The season starts in spring with narcissi and tulips and by mid- to late-summer there is a vibrant array of sweet peas and dahlias.

In the pool garden, the planting is taller and looser and features some of Tom’s trademark American prairie plants. “This area is further into the landscape, away from the house, so it wants to be less primped,” says Tom. Great swathes of Bistorta amplexicaulis, Eupatorium maculatum and Verbena hastata f. rosea luxuriate here.

The owners say it was Tom’s plant palette and his sensitivity to overlapping with the natural environment that attracted them. “We didn’t want a garden that was overly smart. The setting is so peaceful and quiet, we feel tucked away here and that’s the feeling we wanted to preserve.”